In my opinion, here are some of the biggest stories from Amber:
– The superb overall performance by Aronian, especially rapid chess. He won the rapid chess portion by 1.5 points!
– The inexplicably poor performance by Anand in rapid. Anand is regarded as the best rapid player in the world. But he went -1 at Amber with 4 losses!
– Carlsen scored +1 in both rapid and blindfold to finish in a tie for 2nd with Kramnik, Topalov, and Leko.
– Carlsen’s fellow young rival Karjakin scored -1 in blindfold and -2 in rapid to finish 9th and only 1/2 point from last overall.
– Morozevich tied for 2nd in blindfold chess but a disappointing 10th in rapid to finish tied for 6th overall.
Can you think of more?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Was Anand sick?
no, but i think kramnik had a sore throat a couple of days which can explain some of his loses.
Are we in the beginning of rivalry between Carlson and Aronian? Can it go to big way like Karpov-Kasparov.
Round 4, Ivanchuk-Karjakin, 14. … Qxe6.
Aronian and Carlsen, continue to perform as top 5 players.
It appears to me, that Aronian, Carlsen and Kamsky, are currently the most underrated top players.
All in all, Amber 2008 was a fun tourney to watch, but those technical problems “Illegal move” need to be fixed! Gelfand and Topalov was robbed from scoring 0,5 point better.
‘Can you think of more?’
Why, Kramnik scored ‘+2’ of course!!
A ‘minor’ top story would be the collapse of Mamedyarov.
I think that Kramnik agreeing a draw when Gelfand put his queen en prise is worth mentioning
You forgot to mention Carlsen’s double 2-0 wipeouts of Mamedyarov and Wely.